“IT’S SOMETHING YOU cannot put into words, every day we wake up and there’s something new happening.”
In horror, Shabnam Azad has been watching from Ireland as the Taliban rapidly took control of Afghan provinces over the last two weeks.
Extended family members still living in Afghanistan were forced out of their home by Taliban militants, she told The Journal. They travelled to the capital, Kabul, where they believed they may be safe.
The city yesterday fell to the Taliban and is now in chaos as people attempt to flee, dreading what will follow in the weeks ahead.
“It’s unfathomable what’s happening right now over there, moreso for the women and children really,” Azad said.
“That’s not to say the men aren’t suffering, but with the women what’s happening to them, it’s something you cannot put words to.
“A few minutes ago I was looking at the news and people were trying to hang onto the US Air Force planes, trying to cling on for life. I said to my sister that even now you can see there’s not a single woman, they don’t even have the opportunity to try to run away because they’re isolated.”
When the Taliban last controlled the capital, women and girls were mostly denied education or employment. Full face coverings became mandatory in public and they could not leave home without a male companion.
Public floggings and executions were carried out in city squares and stadiums.
In the weeks leading up to their return to power, the Taliban’s leadership attempted to portray a softer image than when they last ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.
But reports from provinces captured earlier by militants have painted a different picture, with women required to wear a burka, only allowed outside their homes with male companions, while men are not allowed to shave their beards or get short haircuts.
“What’s happening now to women is only the tip of the iceberg,” Azad said. “It’s going to get 10 times worse, in my opinion, for women there. Right now they are just trying to occupy, once they settle in then they’ll really start working and make life a living hell for women as it was the last time.”
The suffering has travelled well beyond country’s borders, she said, as Afghan family members and friends all over the world feel the “mental abuse” of the Taliban’s incursion.
Most of us have relatives over there. I have friends who have parents and siblings there too. Sometimes they can’t reach them – not necessarily because something has happened but because connections don’t go through – and at that moment there are 110 things going through their minds.
She welcomed comments this morning from Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney, who said Ireland would accept at least 100-150 more refugees from Afghanistan and that this was expected to increase in the coming weeks and months.
“I’m happy that it’s being recognised that there is a crisis because I find in a lot of countries, because there has been war in Afghanistan for so long, it’s almost like it’s accepted that the country is just like that,” she said.
“The number [of refugees] is very small so I hope to see that grow to thousands. We’re not talking about somebody who is living comfortably in a country who wants to come here; people lost homes, lost sons and daughters and all they need is safety.
“Afghans are very hard workers and they’re very proud people – it takes a lot for them to ask somebody for help and now they’re pleading simply just for safety.”
Minister Coveney said that Ireland will likely prioritise those from human rights organisations and the media, women and girls as well as family members of Afghan nationals who are living in Ireland.
Azad said that while family reunification will be important going forward, it is equally important to help people who do not have any relatives outside Afghanistan because “they do not have a hope and they are really stranded”.
Nasruddin Saljuqi, chairperson of the Afghan Community and Cultural Association of Ireland, said the community here is worried about the future for their families who are still in Afghanistan. They will be appealing to the Irish government to do everything it can to help.
One of his relatives is a father to three girls and is now concerned they will be denied the right to education, he said. If this happens, he will want to take his family out of Afghanistan.
Education is already being impacted by the Taliban takeover as Saljuqi said a female relative reported that, while she was still allowed to go to work, fear kept many of the other teachers and students away.
“People are in fear, they are worrying,” he said. “You can see all of the people going to the airport, they want to leave so it’s obviously a very bad situation.”
Saljuqi said it is difficult to anticipate what will happen in the weeks ahead but based on the Taliban’s history in power, people are not optimistic.
“If the Irish government can assist people it would be good because for the future there may be many new regulations and laws that affect people, their education, their freedom, they may have no democracy, they may say things like music are unlawful. There are many things not in law now that they may bring in.”
An emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council is taking place this afternoon to assess the unfolding humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.
- With reporting from AFP.
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